Method for high-throughput aflp-based polymorphism detection

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method for the high throughput discovery, detection and genotyping of one or more genetic markers in one or more samples, comprising the steps of restriction endonuclease digest of DNA, adaptor-ligation, optional pre-amplification, selective amplification, pooling of the amplified products, sequencing the libraries with sufficient redundancy, clustering followed by identification of the genetic markers within the library and/or between libraries and determination of (co-)dominant genotypes of the genetic markers.

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/274,591, filed May 9, 2014, which is a Continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/666,385, filed Nov. 1, 2012 which is aContinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/158,040, filed Oct.9, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,481,257, which is the U.S. National StageApplication of PCT/NL2006/000648, filed Dec. 20, 2006, which claims thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/752,590, filed Dec. 22,2005, all of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

SEQUENCE LISTING

The instant application contains a Sequence Listing which has beensubmitted in ASCII format via EFS-Web and is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. Said ASCII copy, created on Sep. 18, 2013, isnamed 085342-0306_SL.txt and is 11,333 bytes in size.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the fields of molecular biology andgenetics. The invention relates to rapid discovery, detection andlarge-scale genotyping of polymorphisms in a nucleic acid sample orbetween samples. The identified polymorphisms may be used as geneticmarkers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Exploration of genomic DNA has long been desired by the scientific, inparticular medical, community. Genomic DNA holds the key toidentification, diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer andAlzheimer's disease. In addition to disease identification andtreatment, exploration of genomic DNA may provide significant advantagesin plant and animal breeding efforts, which may provide answers to foodand nutrition problems in the world.

Many diseases are known to be associated with specific geneticcomponents, in particular with polymorphisms in specific genes. Theidentification of polymorphisms in large samples such as genomes is atpresent a laborious and time-consuming task. However, suchidentification is of great value to areas such as biomedical research,developing pharmacy products, tissue typing, genotyping and populationstudies.

Markers, i.c. genetic markers, have been used for a very long time as agenetic typing method, i.e. to connect a phenotypic trait to thepresence, absence or amount of a particular part of DNA (gene). One ofthe most versatile genetic typing technologies is AFLP, already aroundfor many years and widely applicable to any organism (for reviews seeSavelkoul et al. J. Clin. Microbiol, 1999, 37(10), 3083-3091; Bensch etal. Molecular Ecology, 2005, 14, 2899-2914)

The AFLP technology (Zabeau & Vos, 1993; Vos et al., 1995) has foundwidespread use in plant breeding and other field since its invention inthe early nineties. This is due to several characteristics of AFLP, ofwhich the most important is that no prior sequence information is neededto generate large numbers of genetic markers in a reproducible fashion.In addition, the principle of selective amplification, a cornerstone ofAFLP, ensures that the number of amplified fragments can be brought inline with the resolution of the detection system, irrespective of genomesize or origin.

Detection of AFLP fragments is commonly carried out by electrophoresison slab-gels (Vos et al., 1995) or capillary electrophoresis (van derMeulen et al., 2002). The majority of AFLP markers scored in this wayrepresent (single nucleotide) polymorphisms occurring either in therestriction enzyme recognition sites used for AFLP template preparationor their flanking nucleotides covered by selective AFLP primers. Theremainder of the AFLP markers are insertion/deletion polymorphismsoccurring in the internal sequences of the restriction fragments and avery small fraction on single nucleotide substitutions occurring insmall restriction fragments (<approximately 100 bp), which for thesefragments cause reproducible mobility variations between both alleles;these AFLP markers can be scored co-dominantly without having to rely onband intensities.

In a typical AFLP fingerprint, the AFLP markers therefore constitute theminority of amplified fragments (less than 50 percent but often lessthan 20 percent), while the remainder are commonly referred to asconstant AFLP fragments. The latter are nevertheless useful in the gelscoring procedure as they serve as anchor points to calculate fragmentsmobilities of AFLP markers and aid in quantifying the markers forco-dominant scoring. Co-dominant scoring (scoring for homo- orheterozygosity) of AFLP markers currently is restricted to the contextof fingerprinting a segregating population. In a panel of unrelatedlines, only dominant scoring is possible.

Although the throughput of AFLP is very high due to high multiplexinglevels in the amplification and detection steps, the rate limiting stepis the resolving power of electrophoresis. Electrophoresis allows uniqueidentification of the majority of amplified fragments based on thecombination of restriction enzyme combinations (EC), primer combinations(PC) and mobility, but ideally, the detection system should be capableof determining the entire sequence of the amplified fragments to captureall polymorphisms.

Detection by sequencing instead of mobility determination will increasethroughput because:

1) polymorphisms located in the internal sequences will be detected inmost (or all) amplified fragments; this will increase the number ofmarkers per PC considerably.

2) no loss of AFLP markers due to co-migration of AFLP markers andconstant bands.

3) co-dominant scoring does not rely on quantification of bandintensities and is independent of the relatedness of the individualsfingerprinted.

So far, detection of AFLP markers/sequences by sequencing has not beeneconomically feasible due to, among other limitations, cost limitationsof Sanger dideoxy sequencing technology and other conventionalsequencing technologies.

Accordingly, it is one of the goals of the present invention to providefor economically feasible methods for the detection of AFLP markers orother genetic markers such as SNP markers based on sequencing.

An important problem further associated with detection of a collectionof AFLP or SNP containing fragments via sequencing for genotyping (i.e.diagnostic) purposes is that of sampling variation. Specifically, thismeans that when a collection of fragments is analyzed and particularfragments are not observed, one has to make sure that this is not due tothe fact that the fragments involved were not sampled at the detectionstep, although they are present in the fragment mixture, because thiswould lead to false-negative scoring of the marker. This limitation doesnot apply to detection by electrophoresis because position informationon the gel is available.

Accordingly, it is one of the further goals of the present inventionprovide a method that solves the problem of sample variation or at leastreduces the errors caused by sample variation to an acceptable minimum.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventors have found that sequencing is within reach for thedetection of AFLP and SNP markers with the use of AFLP in certainadapted procedures for high throughput sequencing. The invention thusprovides a method or strategy which combines the power and genericapplicability of AFLP with certain high throughput sequencingtechnologies to establish a generically applicable polymorphism scoringsystem. In this strategy, the issue of sampling variation is alsoaddressed to ensure genotyping with high accuracy and maximizing chancesfor datasets with minimal numbers of missing genotypes.

DEFINITIONS

In the following description and examples a number of terms are used. Inorder to provide a clear and consistent understanding of thespecification and claims, including the scope to be given such terms,the following definitions are provided. Unless otherwise defined herein,all technical and scientific terms used have the same meaning ascommonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which thisinvention belongs. The disclosures of all publications, patentapplications, patents and other references are incorporated herein intheir entirety by reference.

Polymorphism: polymorphism refers to the presence of two or morevariants of a nucleotide sequence in a population. A polymorphism maycomprise one or more base changes, an insertion, a repeat, or adeletion. A polymorphism includes e.g. a simple sequence repeat (SSR)and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), which is a variation,occurring when a single nucleotide: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine(C) or guanine (G)—is altered. A variation must generally occur in atleast 1% of the population to be considered a SNP. SNPs make up e.g. 90%of all human genetic variations, and occur every 100 to 300 bases alongthe human genome. Two of every three SNPs substitute Cytosine (C) withThymine (T). Variations in the DNA sequences of e.g. humans or plantscan affect how they handle diseases, bacteria, viruses, chemicals,drugs, etc.

Nucleic acid: a nucleic acid according to the present invention mayinclude any polymer or oligomer of pyrimidine and purine bases,preferably cytosine, thymine, and uracil, and adenine and guanine,respectively (See Albert L. Lehninger, Principles of Biochemistry, at793-800 (Worth Pub. 1982) which is herein incorporated by reference inits entirety for all purposes). The present invention contemplates anydeoxyribonucleotide, ribonucleotide or peptide nucleic acid component,and any chemical variants thereof, such as methylated, hydroxymethylatedor glycosylated forms of these bases, and the like. The polymers oroligomers may be heterogenous or homogenous in composition, and may beisolated from naturally occurring sources or may be artificially orsynthetically produced. In addition, the nucleic acids may be DNA orRNA, or a mixture thereof, and may exist permanently or transitionallyin single-stranded or double-stranded form, including homoduplex,heteroduplex, and hybrid states.

Complexity reduction: the term complexity reduction is used to denote amethod wherein the complexity of a nucleic acid sample, such as genomicDNA, is reduced by the generation of a subset of the sample. This subsetcan be representative for the whole (i.e. complex) sample and ispreferably a reproducible subset. Reproducible means in this contextthat when the same sample is reduced in complexity using the samemethod, the same, or at least comparable, subset is obtained. The methodused for complexity reduction may be any method for complexity reductionknown in the art. A preferred example of a method for complexityreduction includes for example AFLP® (Keygene N.V., the Netherlands; seee.g. EP 0 534 858, U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,994), the methods described byDong (see e.g. WO 03/012118, WO 00/24939), indexed linking (Unrau etal., vide infra), linker-PCR (WO90/008821), and SALSA-PCR (WO00/23620)Schouten et al) etc. The complexity reduction methods used in thepresent invention have in common that they are reproducible.Reproducible in the sense that when the same sample is reduced incomplexity in the same manner, the same subset of the sample isobtained, as opposed to more random complexity reduction such asmicrodissection or the use of mRNA (cDNA) which represents a portion ofthe genome transcribed in a selected tissue and for its reproducibilityis depending on the selection of tissue, time of isolation etc.

AFLP: AFLP refers to a method for selective amplification of DNA basedon digesting a nucleic acid with one or more restriction endonucleasesto yield restriction fragments, ligating adaptors to the restrictionfragments and amplifying the adaptor-ligated restriction fragments withat least one primer that is (part) complementary to the adaptor, (part)complementary to the remains of the restriction endonuclease, and thatfurther contains at least one randomly selected nucleotide from amongstA, C, T, or G (or U as the case may be). AFLP does not require any priorsequence information and can be performed on any starting DNA. Ingeneral, AFLP comprises the steps of:

-   -   (a) digesting a nucleic acid, in particular a DNA or cDNA, with        one or more specific restriction endonucleases, to fragment the        DNA into a corresponding series of restriction fragments;    -   (b) ligating the restriction fragments thus obtained with a        double-stranded synthetic oligonucleotide adaptor, one end of        which is compatible with one or both of the ends of the        restriction fragments, to thereby produce adapter-ligated,        preferably tagged, restriction fragments of the starting DNA;    -   (c) contacting the adapter-ligated, preferably tagged,        restriction fragments under hybridizing conditions with one or        more oligonucleotide primers that contain selective nucleotides        at their 3′-end;    -   (d) amplifying the adapter-ligated, preferably tagged,        restriction fragment hybridised with the primers by PCR or a        similar technique so as to cause further elongation of the        hybridised primers along the restriction fragments of the        starting DNA to which the primers hybridised; and    -   (e) detecting, identifying or recovering the amplified or        elongated DNA fragment thus obtained.

AFLP thus provides a reproducible subset of adaptor-ligated fragments.AFLP is described in EP 534858, U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,994 and in Vos etal. Reference is made to these publications for further detailsregarding AFLP. The AFLP is commonly used as a complexity reductiontechnique and a DNA fingerprinting technology. Within the context of theuse of AFLP as a fingerprinting technology, the concept of an AFLPmarker has been developed.

AFLP marker: An AFLP marker is an amplified adaptor-ligated restrictionfragment that is different between two samples that have been amplifiedusing AFLP (fingerprinted), using the same set of primers. As such, thepresence or absence of this amplified adaptor-ligated restrictionfragment can be used as a marker that is linked to a trait or phenotype.In conventional gel technology, an AFLP marker shows up as a band in thegel located at a certain mobility. Other electrophoretic techniques suchas capillary electrophoresis may not refer to this as a band, but theconcept remains the same, i.e. a nucleic acid with a certain length andmobility. Absence or presence of the band may be indicative of (orassociated with) the presence or absence of the phenotype. AFLP markerstypically involve SNPs in the restriction site of the endonuclease orthe selective nucleotides. Occasionally, AFLP markers may involve indelsin the restriction fragment.

SNP marker: a SNP marker is a marker that is based on an identifiedsingle nucleotide polymorphism at a certain position. SNP markers can belocated at identical positions to AFLP markers, but SNP markers can alsobe located in the restriction fragment itself. As such the genus SNPmarkers thus encompasses the species AFLP markers.

Constant band: a constant band in the AFLP technology is an amplifiedadaptor-ligated restriction fragment that is relatively invariablebetween samples. Thus, a constant band in the AFLP technology will, overa range of samples, show up at about the same position in the gel, i.e.has the same length/mobility. In conventional AFLP these are typicallyused to anchor the lanes corresponding to samples on a gel orelectropherograms of multiple AFLP samples detected by capillaryelectrophoresis. Typically, a constant band is less informative than anAFLP marker. Nevertheless, as AFLP markers customary involve SNPs in theselective nucleotides or the restriction site, constant bands maycomprise SNPs in the restriction fragments themselves, rendering theconstant bands an interesting alternative source of genetic informationthat is complementary to AFLP markers.

Selective base: Located at the 3′ end of the primer that contains a partthat is complementary to the adaptor and a part that is complementary tothe remains of the restriction site, the selective base is randomlyselected from amongst A, C, T or G. By extending a primer with aselective base, the subsequent amplification will yield only areproducible subset of the adaptor-ligated restriction fragments, i.e.only the fragments that can be amplified using the primer carrying theselective base. Selective nucleotides can be added to the 3′end of theprimer in a number varying between 1 and 10. Typically 1-4 suffice. Bothprimers may contain a varying number of selective bases. With each addedselective base, the subset reduces the amount of amplifiedadaptor-ligated restriction fragments in the subset by a factor of about4. Typically, the number of selective bases used in AFLP is indicated by+N+M, wherein one primer carries N selective nucleotides and the otherprimers carries M selective nucleotides. Thus, an Eco/Mse +1/+2 AFLP isshorthand for the digestion of the starting DNA with EcoRI and MseI,ligation of appropriate adaptors and amplification with one primerdirected to the EcoRI restricted position carrying one selective baseand the other primer directed to the MseI restricted site carrying 2selective nucleotides.

Clustering: with the term “clustering” is meant the comparison of two ormore nucleotide sequences based on the presence of short or longstretches of identical or similar nucleotides. Several methods foralignment of nucleotide sequences are known in the art, as will befurther explained below. Sometimes the terms “assembly” or “alignment”are used as synonyms.

Tag: a short sequence that can be added to a primer or included in itssequence or otherwise used as label to provide a unique identifier. Sucha sequence identifier can be a unique base sequence of varying butdefined length uniquely used for identifying a specific nucleic acidsample. For instance 4 bp tags allow 4(exp4)=256 different tags. Typicalexamples are ZIP sequences, known in the art as commonly used tags forunique detection by hybridization (Iannone et al. Cytometry 39:131-140,2000). Using such a tag, the origin of a PCR sample can be determinedupon further processing. In the case of combining processed productsoriginating from different nucleic acid samples, the different nucleicacid samples are generally identified using different tags. In the caseof the present invention, the addition of a unique sequence tag servesto identify the coordinates of the individual plant in the pool ofsequences amplification products. Multiple tags can be used.

Tagging: the term tagging refers to the addition of a tag to a nucleicacid sample in order to be able to distinguish it from a second orfurther nucleic acid sample. Tagging can e.g. be performed by theaddition of a sequence identifier during complexity reduction or by anyother means known in the art. Such sequence identifier can e.g. be aunique base sequence of varying but defined length uniquely used foridentifying a specific nucleic acid sample. Typical examples thereof arefor instance ZIP sequences. Using such a tag, the origin of a sample canbe determined upon further processing. In case of combining processedproducts originating from different nucleic acid samples, the differentnucleic acid samples should be identified using different tags.

Tagged library: the term tagged library refers to a library of taggednucleic acids.

Sequencing: The term sequencing refers to determining the order ofnucleotides (base sequences) in a nucleic acid sample, e.g. DNA or RNA.

High-throughput screening: High-throughput screening, often abbreviatedas HTS, is a method for scientific experimentation especially relevantto the fields of biology and chemistry. Through a combination of modernrobotics and other specialised laboratory hardware, it allows aresearcher to effectively screen large amounts of samplessimultaneously.

Restriction endonuclease: a restriction endonuclease or restrictionenzyme is an enzyme that recognizes a specific nucleotide sequence(target site) in a double-stranded DNA molecule, and will cleave bothstrands of the DNA molecule at every target site.

Restriction fragments: the DNA molecules produced by digestion with arestriction endonuclease are referred to as restriction fragments. Anygiven genome (or nucleic acid, regardless of its origin) will bedigested by a particular restriction endonuclease into a discrete set ofrestriction fragments. The DNA fragments that result from restrictionendonuclease cleavage can be further used in a variety of techniques andcan for instance be detected by gel electrophoresis.

Gel electrophoresis: in order to detect restriction fragments, ananalytical method for fractionating double-stranded DNA molecules on thebasis of size can be required. The most commonly used technique forachieving such fractionation is (capillary) gel electrophoresis. Therate at which DNA fragments move in such gels depends on their molecularweight; thus, the distances traveled decrease as the fragment lengthsincrease. The DNA fragments fractionated by gel electrophoresis can bevisualized directly by a staining procedure e.g. silver staining orstaining using ethidium bromide, if the number of fragments included inthe pattern is sufficiently small. Alternatively further treatment ofthe DNA fragments may incorporate detectable labels in the fragments,such as fluorophores or radioactive labels.

Ligation: the enzymatic reaction catalyzed by a ligase enzyme in whichtwo double-stranded DNA molecules are covalently joined together isreferred to as ligation. In general, both DNA strands are covalentlyjoined together, but it is also possible to prevent the ligation of oneof the two strands through chemical or enzymatic modification of one ofthe ends of the strands. In that case the covalent joining will occur inonly one of the two DNA strands.

Synthetic oligonucleotide: single-stranded DNA molecules havingpreferably from about 10 to about 50 bases, which can be synthesizedchemically are referred to as synthetic oligonucleotides. In general,these synthetic DNA molecules are designed to have a unique or desirednucleotide sequence, although it is possible to synthesize families ofmolecules having related sequences and which have different nucleotidecompositions at specific positions within the nucleotide sequence. Theterm synthetic oligonucleotide will be used to refer to DNA moleculeshaving a designed or desired nucleotide sequence.

Adaptors: short double-stranded DNA molecules with a limited number ofbase pairs, e.g. about 10 to about 30 base pairs in length, which aredesigned such that they can be ligated to the ends of restrictionfragments. Adaptors are generally composed of two syntheticoligonucleotides which have nucleotide sequences which are partiallycomplementary to each other. When mixing the two syntheticoligonucleotides in solution under appropriate conditions, they willanneal to each other forming a double-stranded structure. Afterannealing, one end of the adaptor molecule is designed such that it iscompatible with the end of a restriction fragment and can be ligatedthereto; the other end of the adaptor can be designed so that it cannotbe ligated, but this need not be the case (double ligated adaptors).

Adaptor-ligated restriction fragments: restriction fragments that havebeen capped by adaptors.

Primers: in general, the term primers refer to DNA strands which canprime the synthesis of DNA. DNA polymerase cannot synthesize DNA de novowithout primers: it can only extend an existing DNA strand in a reactionin which the complementary strand is used as a template to direct theorder of nucleotides to be assembled. We will refer to the syntheticoligonucleotide molecules which are used in a polymerase chain reaction(PCR) as primers.

DNA amplification: the term DNA amplification will be typically used todenote the in vitro synthesis of double-stranded DNA molecules usingPCR. It is noted that other amplification methods exist and they may beused in the present invention without departing from the gist.

Selective hybridisation: relates to hybridisation, under stringenthybridisation conditions, of a nucleic acid sequence to a specifiednucleic acid target sequence to a detectably greater degree (e.g., atleast 2-fold over background) than its hybridisation to non-targetnucleic acid sequences and to the substantial exclusion of non-targetnucleic acids. The terms “stringent conditions” or “stringenthybridisation conditions” includes reference to conditions under which aprobe will hybridise to its target sequence, to a detectably greaterdegree than other sequences (e.g., at least 2-fold over background).Stringent conditions are sequence-dependent and will be different indifferent circumstances. By controlling the stringency of thehybridisation and/or washing conditions, target sequences can beidentified which are 100% complementary to the probe (homologousprobing). Alternatively, stringency conditions can be adjusted to allowsome mismatching in sequences so that lower degrees of similarity aredetected (heterologous probing). Generally, a probe is less than about100 nucleotides in length, optionally no more than 50, or 25 nucleotidesin length. Typically, stringent conditions will be those in which thesalt concentration is less than about 1.5 M Na ion, typically about 0.01to 1.0 M Na ion concentration (or other salts) at pH 7.0 to 8.3 and thetemperature is at least about is 30° C. for short probes (e.g., 10 to 50nucleotides) and at least about 60° C. for long probes (e.g., greaterthan 50 nucleotides). Stringent conditions may also be achieved with theaddition of destabilising agents such as formamide. Exemplary lowstringency conditions include hybridisation with a buffer solution of 30to 35% formamide, 1 M NaCl, 1% SDS (sodium dodecylsulphate) at 37° C.,and a wash in 1* to 2*SSC (20*SSC=3.0 M NaCl/0.3 M trisodium citrate) at50 to 55° C. Exemplary moderate stringency conditions includehybridisation in 40 to 45% formamide, 1 M NaCl, 1% SDS at 37° C., and awash in 0.5* to 1*SSC at 55 to 60° C. Exemplary high stringencyconditions include hybridisation in 50% formamide, 1 M NaCl, 1% SDS at37° C., and a wash in 0.1*SSC at 60 to 65° C. Specificity is typicallythe function of post-hybridisation washes, the critical factors beingthe ionic strength and temperature of the final wash solution. ForDNA-DNA hybrids, the Tm can be approximated from the equation ofMeinkoth and Wahl, Anal. Biochem., 138:267-284 (1984): Tm=81.5° C.+16.6(log M)+0.41 (% GC)−0.61 (% form)−500/L; where M is the molarity ofmonovalent cations, % GC is the percentage of guanosine and cytosinenucleotides in the DNA, % form is the percentage of formamide in thehybridisation solution, and L is the length of the hybrid in base pairs.The Tm is the temperature (under defined ionic strength and pH) at which50% of a complementary target sequence hybridises to a perfectly matchedprobe. Tm is reduced by about 1° C. for each 1% of mismatching; thus,Tm, hybridisation and/or wash conditions can be adjusted to hybridise tosequences of the desired identity. For example, if sequences with >90%identity are sought, the Tm can be decreased 10° C. Generally, stringentconditions are selected to be about 5° C. lower than the thermal meltingpoint (Tm) for the specific sequence and its complement at a definedionic strength and pH. However, severely stringent conditions canutilise a hybridisation and/or wash at 1, 2, 3, or 4° C. lower than thethermal melting point (Tm); moderately stringent conditions can utilisea hybridisation and/or wash at 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10° C. lower than thethermal melting point (Tm); low stringency conditions can utilise ahybridisation and/or wash at 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, or 20° C. lower thanthe thermal melting point (Tm). Using the equation, hybridisation andwash compositions, and desired Tm, those of ordinary skill willunderstand that variations in the stringency of hybridisation and/orwash solutions are inherently described. If the desired degree ofmismatching results in a Tm of less than 45° C. (aqueous solution) or32° C. (formamide solution) it is preferred to increase the SSCconcentration so that a higher temperature can be used. An extensiveguide to the hybridisation of nucleic acids is found in Tijssen,Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and MolecularBiology-Hybridisation with Nucleic Acid Probes, Part 1, Chapter 2“Overview of principles of hybridisation and the strategy of nucleicacid probe assays”, Elsevier, N.Y. (1993); and Current Protocols inMolecular Biology, Chapter 2, Ausubel, et al., Eds., Greene Publishingand Wiley-Interscience, New York (1995).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In a first aspect the present invention relates to a method for the highthroughput discovery, detection and large-scale genotyping of one ormore genetic markers in one or more samples, comprising the steps of:

-   -   (a) providing DNA from one or more samples;    -   (b) restricting the DNA with at least one restriction        endonuclease to produce restriction fragments;    -   (c) ligating adaptors to the restriction fragments to produce        adaptor-ligated restriction fragments;    -   (d) optionally, amplifying the adaptor-ligated restriction        fragments with a primer pair that is at least complementary to        the adaptors to produce pre-amplified adaptor-ligated        restriction fragments;    -   (e) amplifying the (optionally pre-amplified) adaptor-ligated        restriction fragments with a primer pair, wherein at least one        of the primers contains an identifier tag at the 5′ end of the        primer to produce a library of tagged amplified subsets of        adaptor-ligated restriction fragments for each sample;    -   (f) optionally, pooling the libraries derived from multiple        samples;    -   (g) sequencing the libraries using high throughput sequencing        technology;    -   (h) clustering the sequences per library, using the identifier        tag;    -   (i) identify genetic markers by comparing clustered sequences        within a library and/or between the libraries.    -   (j) determine (co-)dominant genotypes of the genetic markers in        the one or more libraries, preferably for all samples and for        all identified markers.

The method relates to the discovery, detection and genotyping of one ormore genetic markers in one or more samples. In certain embodiments, themethods relates to presence/absence scoring of the genetic markers ofinterest. In certain embodiments the method relates to determination of(co-)dominant genotypes of one or more samples for one or more geneticmarkers. This may require normalisation of the observed number ofmarker- or marker allele sequences between samples.

In the first step (a) of the method, DNA is to be provided. This can bedone by methods known in the art per se. The isolation of DNA isgenerally achieved using common methods in the art such as thecollection of tissue from a member of the population, DNA extraction(for instance using the Q-Biogene fast DNA kit), quantification andnormalisation to obtain equal amounts of DNA per sample. The DNA can befrom a variety of sources (Genomic, RNA, cDNA, BAc, YAC etc.) andorganisms (human, mammal, plant, microorganisms, etc.). The isolated DNAmay be pooled.

The DNA is restricted in step (b) using at least one restrictionendonuclease. Depending on the case, i.e. size of genome, moreendonucleases can be used. In certain embodiments, 2 or moreendonucleases can be used. For most genomes 2 endonucleases aresufficient and this is hence most preferred. In certain embodiments,especially for large or complex genomes, more endonucleases can be used.Preferably the endonuclease provides for relatively short restrictionfragments in the order of 250-500 bp, but this is not essential.Typically, at least one frequent cutting endonuclease is preferred, i.e.endonucleases that have a 4 or 5 base pair recognition sequence. Onesuch enzyme is MseI, but numerous others are commercially available andcan be used. Also enzymes that cut outside their recognition sequencecan be used (IIs type), or enzymes that provide blunt ended restrictionfragments. A preferred combination uses one rare (6 and more base pairrecognition sequence, for example EcoRI) and one frequent cutter.

After restriction of the pooled DNAs, or simultaneously therewith,adaptors are ligated to the restriction fragments to provide foradaptor-ligated restriction fragments. One or more different adaptorsmay be used, for instance two adaptors, one forward, one reverseadaptor. Alternatively one adaptor may be used for all fragments or setsof adaptors may be used that at the overhanging end of the adaptorcontain permutations of nucleotides such as to provide for indexinglinkers that may allow for a pre-selection step (Unrau et al., Gene,1994, 145, 163-169). Alternatively, blunt ended adaptors can be used, inthe case of blunt ended restriction fragments. Adaptor-ligation is wellknown in the art and is described inter alia in EP 534858. One usefulvariant of the AFLP technology uses no selective nucleotides (i.c. +0/+0primers) and is sometimes called linker PCR. As with Salsa PCR, theselection step is provided by the use of restriction enzymes, differentrestriction enzymes yields different subsets. This is sometimes alsodenoted as a pre-amplification wherein primers are used that are atleast complementary to the adapters and optionally also to part of theremains of the recognition sequence of the restriction endonuclease.Pre-amplification may serve to (further) normalize the amount of DNAfrom each sample, or to increase the total amount of DNA to allow formultiple analysis (i.e. splitting up samples) and to enhance thesignal-to-noise ratio. Pre-amplification may also be used to introducetags that allow pooling prior to selective amplification. By theintroduction of nucleotide tags (for instance 4 bp) at the 5′end of theprimer, restriction fragments for a distinct sample can be tagged and atthe end of the process can be retrieved by using the tag.

The adaptor-ligated restriction fragments are, after the optionalpre-amplification, amplified in step (d) of the method of the inventionwith a pair of primers. One of the primers is complementary to at leastpart of the adaptor and may further be complementary to part of theremainder of the recognition sequence of the endonuclease and mayfurther contain (randomly selected) selective nucleotides at its 3′-end,similar as is described in EP534858. Preferably the primers are capableof selectively hybridising under stringent hybridisation conditions. Theselective amplification can also be performed with primers that carry a5′ tag to identify the origin of the sample, similar as above. Theresult is a library of (tagged) subsets of amplified adaptor-ligatedrestriction fragments.

The selectively amplified fragments in the libraries prepared frommultiple samples can optionally be pooled at this point This may beuseful in case markers are sought which are specific for certain groupsof samples, such as those sharing certain phenotypic characteristics.Screening pooled samples is commonly referred to as bulked segregantanalysis (BSA; Michelmore, Paran and Kesseli, 1991). In certainembodiments, pooling can also be performed before DNA extraction in thesampling stage, reducing the number of DNA preparations. Pooling of theDNA further serves to normalise the DNAs prior to PCR amplification toprovide for a more equal representation in the libraries for sequencing.

The, optionally pooled, libraries of selectively amplifiedadaptor-ligated restriction fragments are now sequenced using highthroughput sequencing technology.

The sequencing may in principle be conducted by any means known in theart, such as the dideoxy chain termination method (Sanger sequencing).It is however preferred and more advantageous that the sequencing isperformed using high-throughput sequencing methods, such as the methodsdisclosed in WO 03/004690, WO 03/054142, WO 2004/069849, WO 2004/070005,WO 2004/070007, and WO 2005/003375 (all in the name of 454 LifeSciences), by Seo et al. (2004) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:5488-93,and technologies of Helios, Solexa, US Genomics, etcetera, which areherein incorporated by reference. It is most preferred that sequencingis performed using the apparatus and/or method disclosed in WO03/004690, WO 03/054142, WO 2004/069849, WO 2004/070005, WO 2004/070007,and WO 2005/003375 (all in the name of 454 Life Sciences), which areherein incorporated by reference. The technology described currentlyallows sequencing of up to 40 million bases in a single run and is 100times faster and cheaper than competing technology based on Sangersequencing and using currently available capillary electrophoresisinstruments such as MegaBACE (GE Healthcare) or ABI3700(x1) (AppliedBiosystems). This will increase with increasing read length per reactionand/or increasing numbers of parallel reactions. The sequencingtechnology roughly consists of 5 steps: 1) fragmentation of DNA andligation of specific adaptor to create a library of single-stranded DNA(ssDNA); 2) annealing of ssDNA to beads, emulsification of the beads inwater-in-oil microreactors and performing emulsion PCR to amplify theindividual ssDNA molecules on beads; 3) selection of/enrichment forbeads containing amplified ssDNA molecules on their surface 4)deposition of DNA carrying beads in a PicoTiterPlate®; and 5)simultaneous sequencing in 100,000 wells by generation of apyrophosphate light signal.

In a preferred embodiment, the sequencing comprises the steps of:

(1) annealing sequencing-adaptor-ligated fragments to beads, each beadannealing with a single fragment;

(2) emulsifying the beads in water-in-oil micro reactors, eachwater-in-oil micro reactor comprising a single bead;

(3) performing emulsion PCR to amplify adaptor-ligated fragments on thesurface of beads

(4) selecting/enriching beads containing amplified adaptor-ligatedfragments;

(5) loading the beads in wells, each well comprising a single bead; and

(6) generating a pyrophosphate signal.

In the first step (1), the adaptors that are present in the adaptorligated restriction fragments are annealed to the beads. As outlinedherein before, the sequencing adaptor includes at least a “key” regionfor annealing to a bead, a sequencing primer region and a PCR primerregion. In particular, the amplified adaptor-ligated restrictionfragments now contain at one of the ends the following sequence5′-Sequence primer binding site---Tag---PCR primer sequence-3′, while atthe other end a segment is present that may be as follows: 5′-Beadannealing sequence---Tag---Adaptor specific sequence---restrictionsite-specific sequence (optional)---(randomly) selective sequence(optional)-3′. It may be clear that the Sequence primer binding site andthe Bead annealing sequence may be interchanged. This Bead annealingsequence can now be used for annealing the fragments to the bead, thebead carrying a nucleotide sequence to that end.

Thus, adapted fragments are annealed to beads, each bead annealing witha single adapted fragment. To the pool of adapted fragments, beads areadded in excess as to ensure annealing of one single adapted fragmentper bead for the majority of the beads (Poisson distribution).

In a preferred embodiment, to increase the efficiency of the screeningfurther, it is beneficial to amplify the PCR product directionally ontothe bead for sequencing. This can be accomplished to perform the PCRwith adaptor-tailed PCR primers of which one strand of the adaptor onthe MseI (or other restriction enzyme) side is complementary to theoligonucleotide coupled to the sequence beads.

In a next step, the beads are emulsified in water-in-oil microreactors,each water-in-oil microreactor comprising a single bead. PCR reagentsare present in the water-in-oil microreactors allowing a PCR reaction totake place within the microreactors. Subsequently, the microreactors arebroken, and the beads comprising DNA (DNA positive beads) are enriched.

In a following step, the beads are loaded in wells, each well comprisinga single bead. The wells are preferably part of a PicoTiter™ Plateallowing for simultaneous sequencing of a large amount of fragments.

After addition of enzyme-carrying beads, the sequence of the fragmentsis determined using pyrosequencing. In successive steps, the PicoTiter™Plate and the beads as well as the enzyme beads therein are subjected todifferent deoxyribonucleotides in the presence of conventionalsequencing reagents, and upon incorporation of a deoxyribonucleotide alight signal is generated which is recorded. Incorporation of thecorrect nucleotide will generate a pyrosequencing signal which can bedetected.

Pyrosequencing itself is known in the art and described inter alia onwww.biotagebio.com; www.pyrosequencing.com/section technology. Thetechnology is further applied in e.g. WO 03/004690, WO 03/054142, WO2004/069849, WO 2004/070005, WO 2004/070007, and WO 2005/003375 (all inthe name of 454 Life Sciences), which are herein incorporated byreference.

After sequencing, the sequences of the fragments that are directlyobtained from the sequencing step may be trimmed, preferably in silico,to remove any bead annealing sequence, sequencing primer, adaptor orprimer-related sequence information.

Typically, the alignment or clustering is performed on sequence datathat have been trimmed for any added adaptors/primer sequences i.e.using only the sequence data from the fragments that originate from thenucleic acid sample, together with the optional identifier tag.

Methods of alignment of sequences for comparison purposes are well knownin the art. Various programs and alignment algorithms are described in:Smith and Waterman (1981) Adv. Appl. Math. 2:482; Needleman and Wunsch(1970) J. Mol. Biol. 48:443; Pearson and Lipman (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad.Sci. USA 85:2444; Higgins and Sharp (1988) Gene 73:237-244; Higgins andSharp (1989) CABIOS 5:151-153; Corpet et al. (1988) Nucl. Acids Res.16:10881-90; Huang et al. (1992) Computer Appl. in the Biosci. 8:155-65;and Pearson et al. (1994) Meth. Mol. Biol. 24:307-31, which are hereinincorporated by reference. Altschul et al. (1994) Nature Genet. 6:119-29(herein incorporated by reference) present a detailed consideration ofsequence alignment methods and homology calculations.

The NCBI Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) (Altschul et al.,1990) is available from several sources, including the National Centerfor Biological Information (NCBI, Bethesda, Md.) and on the Internet,for use in connection with the sequence analysis programs blastp,blastn, blastx, tblastn and tblastx. It can be accessed at<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/>. A description of how to determinesequence identity using this program is available at<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/blast_help.html>. The databasepreferably comprises EST sequences, genomic sequences of the species ofinterest and/or the non-redundant sequence database of GenBank orsimilar sequence databases.

High throughput sequencing methods can be used as described in Shendureet al. Science, Vol 309, Issue 5741, 1728-1732. Examples thereof aremicroelectrophoretic sequencing, Hybridization sequencing/sequencing byhybridization (SBH), cyclic-array sequencing on amplified molecules,cyclic-array sequencing on single molecules, Non-cyclical,single-molecule, real-time methods, such as polymerase sequencing,exonuclease sequencing, nanopore sequencing.

Within the library the presence of a genetic marker and/or the genotypeof the sample for a genetic marker can now be determined.

The method of the present invention can be used for the identification,detection of genotype determination AFLP markers, but also for theidentification, detection and genotyping of SNP markers contained inconstant bands.

To provide a solution to the problem of sampling variation which affectsthe accuracy of genotyping genetic markers by sequencing allelic(marker) fragments contained in a library of multiple fragments, thepresent inventors have also found that detection of AFLP markers viasequencing is preferably performed with sufficient redundancy (depth) tosample all amplified fragments at least once and accompanied bystatistical means which address the issue of sampling variation inrelation to the accuracy of the genotypes called. Furthermore, just aswith AFLP scoring, in the context of a segregating population, thesimultaneous scoring of the parent individuals in one experiment, willaid in determining the statistical threshold, because all possiblealleles in the sample will be scored in either parent 1 or parent 2.Note that it is suggested to sample parent individuals with higherredundancy than individuals of segregating populations.

Thus, in certain embodiments, the redundancy of the tagged amplifiedadaptor-ligated restriction fragments is at least 6, preferably at least7, more preferably at least 8 and most preferably at least 9. In certainembodiments, the sequence of each adaptor-ligated restriction fragmentis determined at least 6, preferably at least 7, more preferably atleast 8 and most preferably at least 9 fold. In certain embodiments, theredundancy is selected such, assuming a 50/50 overall chance ofidentifying the locus correctly as homozygous, that the chance ofcorrect identification of the locus is more than 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%,99%, 99.5%.

In certain embodiments, the number of samples can be varied between 1and 100.000, this also largely depends on the size of the genome to beanalysed and the number of selectively amplified fragments. Usually, thecapacity of the sequencing technology employed provides the mostlimiting factor in this respect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A shows a fragment according to the present invention annealedonto a bead (‘454 bead’) and the sequence of primer used forpre-amplification of the two pepper lines. ‘DNA fragment’ denotes thefragment obtained after digestion with a restriction endonuclease,‘keygene adaptor’ denotes an adaptor providing an annealing site for the(phosphorylated) oligonucleotide primers (SEQ ID NOS 1-4, respectively,in order of appearance) used to generate a library, ‘KRS’ denotes anidentifier sequence (tag), ‘454 SEQ. Adaptor’ denotes a sequencingadaptor, and ‘454 PCR adaptor’ denotes an adaptor to allow for emulsionamplification of the DNA fragment. The PCR adaptor allows for annealingto the bead and for amplification and may contain a 3′-T overhang.

FIG. 1B shows a schematic primer used in the complexity reduction step.Such a primer generally comprises a recognition site region indicated as(2), a constant region that may include a tag section indicated as (1)and one or more selective nucleotides in a selective region indicated as(3) at the 3′-end thereof).

FIGS. 2A and 2B show DNA concentration estimation using 2% agarosegel-electrophoresis. S1 denotes PSP11; S2 denote PI201234. 50, 100, 250and 500 ng denotes respectively 50 ng, 100 ng, 250 ng and 500 ng toestimate DNA amounts of S1 and S2. FIGS. 2C and 2D show DNAconcentration determination using Nanodrop spectrophotometry.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show the results of intermediate quality assessments ofexample 3. FIG. 3C shows DNA concentrations of each sample noted usingNanodrop.

FIG. 4A shows flow charts of the sequence data processing pipeline, i.e.the steps taken from the generation of the sequencing data to theidentification of putative SNPs, SSRs and indels, via steps of theremoval of known sequence information in Trimming & Tagging resulting intrimmed sequence data which are clustered and assembled to yield contigsand singletons (fragments that cannot be assembled in a contig) afterwhich putative polymorphisms can be identified and assessed. FIG. 4Bfurther elaborates on the process of polymorphisms mining.

FIG. 5: Multiple alignment “10037_CL989contig2” of pepper AFLP fragmentsequences (SEQ ID NOS 39-43, respectively, in order of appearance),containing a putative single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Note thatthe SNP (indicated by an the black arrow) is defined by an A allelepresent in both reads of sample 1 (PSP11), denoted by the presence ofthe MS1 tag in the name of the top two reads, and a G allele present insample 2 (PI201234), denoted by the presence of the MS2 tag in the nameof the bottom two reads. Read names are shown on the left. The consensussequence of this multiple alignment is (5′-3′):

(SEQ ID NO: 38) TAACACGACTTTGAACAAACCCAAACTCCCCCAATCGATTTCAAACCTAGAACA[A/G]TGTTGGTTTTGGTGCTAACTTCAACCCCACTACTGTTTTGCTCTATTTTTG.

FIG. 6: Graphic representation of the probability of correctclassification of the genotype based on the number of observed reads perlocus.

EXAMPLES

The method is exemplified as follows:

1) AFLP templates are prepared according to a modified protocol of Voset al. which involves a heat-denaturation step for 20 min at 80° C.between the restriction and ligation steps. After incubation for 20 minat 80° C., the restriction enzyme digest is cooled to room temperatureand DNA ligase is added. The denaturation step leads to dissociation ofthe complementary strands of restriction fragments up to 120 bp suchthat no adaptors will be ligated to the ends. As a result, fragmentssmaller than 120 bp will not be amplified, hence size selection isachieved.

2) Pre-amplification reactions, if applicable, are performed as inconventional AFLP.

3) The last (selective) amplification step is performed using AFLPprimers with unique identifier tags for every sample in thepopulation/experiment, (using a unique 4 bp identifier sequence; KIS).The KIS are located at the 5′end of the selective AFLP primers. Oneadditional selective nucleotide will be used in comparison with thenumber of selective bases used in conventional AFLP detection byelectrophoresis, e.g. +4/+3 for an EcoRI/MseI fingerprint in pepper (geldetection +3/+3) and +4/+4 for and EcoRI/MseI fingerprint in maize (geldetection +4/+3). The number of selective nucleotides that are appliedneeds to be determined empirically; it may be so that the same number ofselective nucleotides can be applied as used for gel detection. Thisnumber further depends on the number of samples included in theexperiment, since the numbers of sequence traces is assumed to be fixed200,000 at the current status of sequencing technology, but this may andprobably will increase. Preferred starting point is to achieve 10-foldsampling of AFLP fragments per sample library.

4) The collection of samples prepared according to steps 1-4 issubjected to sequencing via 454 Life Sciences technology. This meansthat individual AFLP fragments are cloned on beads, PCR amplified andsequenced. An output of 200,000 sequences of 100 bp length is expected.For a collection of 100 samples, this equals an average of 2000sequences traces/sample, traceable to sample nr. via the 5′ tag.

5) Assuming the amplification of 100 AFLP fragments per PC when 1additional selective nucleotide is used compared to the number used withgel detection, of which 90 percent are constant bands, the AFLPfragments are sampled with 20-fold average redundancy per fragment.However, since sequencing is non directional and most bands are >200 bp,sequencing redundancy will be slightly over 10-fold for each fragmentend.

6) All sequences are clustered per sample using the KRS tag. Given a10-fold over sampling, this means that 200 different sequence traces areexpected per sample, representing 200×100 bp=20 kb sequence/sample. When10 percent of these sequences are derived from AFLP markers (i.e. 1allele is amplified and the other is absent in the PCR reaction), 90percent (18 kb) of the sequences are derived from constant bands.

7) Two types of genetic markers are scored:

A) AFLP markers: these are sequences which are observed in some samples,but absent in others.

Inspection of the frequency of sequences in the collection of sampleswill reveal this category. Dominant scoring is performed depending onthe presence/absence observation of these sequences in every sample.Reliable scoring of AFLP markers requires a statistical threshold to beset regarding the frequency with which other AFLP sequences are observedin the experiment. I.e. an AFLP marker can be scored as present(dominant) if the AFLP marker sequence is observed in the sample, butthe reliability of the absent score depends on the (average) frequencyof (constant) AFLP fragments. Statistical threshold levels are requiredsuch that presence/absence scoring is performed with preferably at least99.5% accuracy, depending on the acceptable level needed for thespecific application. If a segregating population and its parents isanalysed, these markers can possibly be scored co-dominantly as well bydefining frequency categories of the marker sequences. The latter mayactually be complicated by the influence of sampling variation of theAFLP marker which differs between samples.

B) (SN) Polymorphisms in Constant AFLP Fragments.

This is the most interesting (and abundant) category of genetic markers.The essence is that SNP markers contained in the internal sequences ofconstant AFLP fragments are scored as co-dominant SNP markers. Again,this preferably requires applying a statistical threshold level foraccurate calling of the presence or absence of an allele. A 10-foldsequencing redundancy of the fragment library is expected to besufficient but a statistical analysis method is needed to determineaccuracy of the SNP marker genotypes depending on the number each allelesequence is observed. The rationale is that when a constant bandcontains a SNP and one allele is observed e.g. 5 times while (thesequence containing the) other allele is not observed, it is highlylikely that the sample is homozygous for the observed allele.Consequently, when both alleles are observed, the sample is scoredheterozygous for the SNP marker, irrespective of their frequencies.

8) The result will be a genotyping table containing the genotypes of(co-)dominantly scored AFLP markers and co-dominantly scored SNPs, alongwith probabilities for correctness of the genotypes for all markers.Alternatively, a dataset is generated which contains genotypes whichhave surpassed the set statistical threshold level.

The approach assumes 10-fold over sampling of AFLP fragments per sample,yielding 18 kb of constant sequence/sample and 2 kb of AFLP markersequences.

The numbers of genetic markers observed depends on the SNP rate in thegermplasm investigated. Below, estimates of the numbers of geneticmarkers are provided at different germplasm SNP rates, when sampling 20kb sequence. The average length of AFLP markers/fragments is assumed tobe 200 bp:

TABLE 1 Expected numbers of genetic markers scored by sequencing AFLPfragments using 454 Life sciences technology assuming 10-fold oversampling, 200,000 sequence traces, 90 percent constant bands/10 percentAFLP markers at various SNP rates. SNPs in constant bands (18 SNP rateAFLP markers (2 kb) kb)*  1/250 bp 8 72 1/1000 bp 2 18 1/2000 bp 1 91/5000 bp 0.4 3.6 *As the AFLP fragments may be sequenced from bothends, a proportion of the observed SNP can be derived from the sameloci.

It is important to note that the numbers provided in table 1 areaverages, which may differ between combinations of different primers.Analogous to conventional AFLP typing, identification of top primercombinations (PC) may yield higher numbers of markers per PC. Inaddition, the numbers presented in Table 1 may change depending on therequired level of over sampling needed in order to reach the requiredaccuracy level.

The calculation of the correct classification of the genotype is asfollows:

P(correct)=P(aa)+P(AA)+P(Aa)*[1−0.5*exp(n−1))]

Wherein P(aa) is the fraction of the population with genotype aa (in theenclosed graph, FIG. 9, set at 0.25. P(AA) is the fraction of thepopulation with genotype AA (set at 0.25. P(Aa) is the fraction of thepopulation with genotype Aa (in FIG. 6 and table below, set at 0.5. nequals the number of individuals.

TABLE n P 1 0.5 2 0.75 3 0.875 4 0.9375 5 0.96875 6 0.984375 7 0.9921888 0.996094 9 0.998047 10 0.999023

Example 1 Pepper

DNA from the Pepper lines PSP-11 and PI201234 was used to generate AFLPproduct by use of AFLP Keygene Recognition Site specific primers. (TheseAFLP primers are essentially the same as conventional AFLP primers, e.g.described in EP 0 534 858, and will generally contain a recognition siteregion, a constant region and one or more selective nucleotides in aselective region.

From the pepper lines PSP-11 or PI201234 150 ng of DNA was digested withthe restriction endonucleases EcoRI (5 U/reaction) and MseI (2U/reaction) for 1 hour at 37° C. following by inactivation for 10minutes at 80° C. The obtained restriction fragments were ligated withdouble-stranded synthetic oligonucleotide adapter, one end of which iscompatible with one or both of the ends of the EcoRI and/or MseIrestriction fragments. The restriction ligation mixture was 10 timesdiluted and 5 microliter of each sample was pre-amplified (2) with EcoRI+1(A) and MseI +1(C) primers (set I). After amplification the quality ofthe pre-amplification product of the two pepper samples was checked on a1% agarose gel. The preamplification products were 20 times diluted,followed by a KRSEcoRI +1(A) and KRSMseI +2(CA) AFLP pre-amplification.The KRS (identifier) sections are underlined and the selectivenucleotides are in bold at the 3′-end in the primer sequence SEQ ID 1-4below. After amplification the quality of the pre-amplification productof the two pepper samples was checked on a 1% agarose gel and by anEcoRI +3(A) and MseI +3(C) (3) AFLP fingerprint (4). Thepre-amplification products of the two pepper lines were separatelypurified on a QiagenPCR column (5). The concentration of the samples wasmeasured on a NanoDrop® ND-1000 Spectrophotometer. A total of 5micrograms PSP-11 and 5 micrograms PI201234 PCR products were mixed andsequenced.

Primer Set I Used for Preamplification of PSP-11

E01LKRS1 [SEQ ID 1] 5′-CGTCAGACTGCGTACCAATTCA-3′ M15KKRS1 [SEQ ID 2]5′-TGGTGATGAGTCCTGAGTAACA-3′ Primer set II used for preamplification of PI201234 E01LKRS2 [SEQ ID 3] 5′-CAAGAGACTGCGTACCAATTCA-3′ M15KKRS2[SEQ ID 4] 5′-AGCCGATGAGTCCTGAGTAACA-3′

(1) EcoRI/MseI Restriction Ligation Mixture

Restriction Mix (40 ul/Sample)

DNA 6 μl (±300 ng) ECoRI (5U) 0.1 μl MseI(2U) 0.05 μl 5xRL 8 μl MQ 25.85μl Totaal 40 μl

Incubation during 1 h. at 37° C.

Addition of:

Ligation Mix (10 μl/Sample)

10 mM ATP 1 μl T4 DNA ligase 1 μl ECoRI adapt. (5 pmol/μl) 1 μl MseIadapt. . (50 pmol/μl) 1 μl 5xRL 2 μl MQ 4 μl Totaal 10 μl

Incubation during 3 h. at 37° C.

EcoRI-Adaptor

91M35/91M36: [SEQ ID 5] *-CTCGTAGACTGCGTACC: 91M35  ±bio [SEQ ID 6]CATCTGACGCATGGTTAA: 91M36 

MseI-Adaptor

92A18/92A19: [SEQ ID 7] 5-GACGATGAGTCCTGAG-3: 92A18  [SEQ ID 8]3-TACTCAGGACTCAT-5: 92A19

(2) Pre-Amplification

Preamplification (A/C):

RL-mix (10x) 5 μl EcoRI-pr E01L(50 ng/ul) 0.6 μl MseI-pr M02K(50 ng/ul)0.6 μl dNTPs (25 mM) 0.16 μl Taq.pol.(5U) 0.08 μl 10XPCR 2.0 μl MQ 11.56μl Total 20 μl/reaction

Pre-Amplification Thermal Profile

Selective pre amplification was done in a reaction volume of 50 μl. ThePCR was performed in a PE GeneAmp PCR System 9700 and a 20 cycle profilewas started with a 94° C. denaturation step for 30 seconds, followed byan annealing step of 56° C. for 60 seconds and an extension step of 72°C. for 60 seconds.

EcoRI +1(A)¹ [SEQ ID 9] E01 L 92R11: 5-AGACTGCGTACCAATTCA-3  MseI +1(C)¹[SEQ ID 10] M02k 93E42: 5-GATGAGTCCTGAGTAAC-3 

Preamplification A/CA:

PA+1/+1-mix (20x) 5 μl EcoRI-pr 1.5 μl MseI-pr. 1.5 μl dNTPs (25 mM) 0.4μl Taq.pol.(5U) 0.2 μl 10XPCR 5 μl MQ 36.3 μl Total 50 μl

Selective pre amplification was done in a reaction volume of 50 μl. ThePCR was performed in a PE GeneAmp PCR System 9700 and a 30 cycle profilewas started with a 94° C. denaturation step for 30 seconds, followed byan annealing step of 56° C. for 60 seconds and an extension step of 72°C. for 60 seconds.

(3) KRSEcoRI +1(A) and KRSMseI +2(CA)²

[SEQ ID 11] 05F212 E01LKRS1 CGTCAGACTGCGTACCAATTCA -3′ [SEQ ID 12]05F213 E01LKRS2 CAAGAGACTGCGTACCAATTCA -3′ [SEQ ID 13]05F214 M15KKRS1 TGGTGATGAGTCCTGAGTAACA -3′ [SEQ ID 14]05F215 M15KKRS2 AGCCGATGAGTCCTGAGTAACA -3′selective nucleotides in bold and tags (KRS) underlinedSample PSP11    :E01LKRS1/M15KKRS1 Sample PI120234 :E01LKRS2/M15KKRS2

(4) AFLP Protocol

Selective amplification was done in a reaction volume of 20 μl. The PCRwas performed in a PE GeneAmp PCR System 9700. A 13 cycle profile wasstarted with a 94° C. denaturation step for 30 seconds, followed by anannealing step of 65° C. for 30 seconds, with a touchdown phase in whichthe annealing temperature was lowered 0.7° C. in each cycle, and anextension step of 72° C. for 60 seconds. This profile was followed by a23 cycle profile with a 94° C. denaturation step for 30 seconds,followed by an annealing step of 56° C. for 30 seconds and an extensionstep of 72° C. for 60 seconds.

EcoRI +3( AAC ) and MseI +3( CAG ) E32 92S02: [SEQ ID 15]5-GACTGCGTACCAATTC AAC -3  M49 92G23: [SEQ ID 16] 5-GATGAGTCCTGAGTAA CAG-3

(5) Qiagen Column

The AFLP product was purified by using the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit(QIAGEN) following the QIAquick® Spin Handbook 07/2002 page 18 and theconcentration was measured with a NanoDrop® ND-1000 Spectrophotometer. Atotal of 5 μg of +1/+2 PSP-11 AFLP product and 5 μg of +1/+2 PI201234AFLP product was put together and solved in 23.3 μl TE. Finally amixture with a concentration of 430 ng/μl +1/+2 AFLP product wasobtained.

Sequence Library Preparation and High-Throughput Sequencing

Mixed amplification products from both pepper lines were subjected tohigh-throughput sequencing using 454 Life Sciences sequencing technologyas described by Margulies et al., (Margulies et al., Nature 437, pp.376-380 and Online Supplements). Specifically, the AFLP PCR productswere first end-polished and subsequently ligated to adaptors tofacilitate emulsion-PCR amplification and subsequent fragment sequencingas described by Margulies and co-workers. 454 adaptor sequences,emulsion PCR primers, sequence-primers and sequence run conditions wereall as described by Margulies and co-workers. The linear order offunctional elements in an emulsion-PCR fragment amplified on Sepharosebeads in the 454 sequencing process was as follows as exemplified inFIG. 1A:

454 PCR adaptor—454 sequence adaptor—4 bp AFLP primer tag 1—AFLP primersequence 1 including selective nucleotide(s)—AFLP fragment internalsequence—AFLP primer sequence 2 including selective nucleotide(s), 4 bpAFLP primers tag 2—454 sequence adaptor—454 PCR adaptor—Sepharose bead

Two high-throughput 454 sequence runs were performed by 454 LifeSciences (Branford, Conn.; United States of America).

454 Sequence Run Data-Processing.

Sequence data resulting from one 454 sequence run were processed using abio-informatics pipeline (Keygene N.V.). Specifically, raw 454basecalled sequence reads were converted in FASTA format and inspectedfor the presence of tagged AFLP adaptor sequences using a BLASTalgorithm. Upon high-confidence matches to the known tagged AFLP primersequences, sequences were trimmed, restriction endonuclease sitesrestored and assigned the appropriate tags (sample 1 EcoRI (ES1), sample1 MseI (MS1), sample 2 EcoRI (ES2) or sample 2 MseI (MS2),respectively). Next, all trimmed sequences larger than 33 bases wereclustered using a megaBLAST procedure based on overall sequencehomologies. Next, clusters were assembled into one or more contigsand/or singletons per cluster, using a CAP3 multiple alignmentalgorithm. Contigs containing more than one sequence were inspected forthe sequence mismatches, representing putative polymorphisms. Sequencemismatches were assigned quality scores based on the following criteria:

-   -   the numbers of reads in a contig    -   the observed allele distribution        -   The above two criteria form the basis for the so called Q            score assigned to each putative SNP/indel. Q scores range            from 0 to 1; a Q score of 0.3 can only be reached in case            both alleles are observed at least twice.    -   location in homopolymers of a certain length (adjustable;        default setting to avoid polymorphism located in homopolymers of        3 bases or longer).    -   number of contigs in cluster.    -   distance to nearest neighboring sequence mismatches (adjustable;        important for certain types of genotyping assays probing        flanking sequences)    -   the level of association of observed alleles with sample 1 or        sample 2; in case of a consistent, perfect association between        the alleles of a putative polymorphism and samples 1 and 2, the        polymorphism (SNP) is indicated as an “elite” putative        polymorphism (SNP). An elite polymorphism is thought to have a        high probability of being located in a unique or low-copy genome        sequence in case two homozygous lines have been used in the        discovery process. Conversely, a weak association of a        polymorphism with sample origin bears a high risk of having        discovered false polymorphisms arising from alignment of        non-allelic sequences in a contig.

Sequences containing SSR motifs were identified using the MISA searchtool (MIcroSAtellelite identification tool; available fromhttp://pgrc.ipk-gatersleben.de/misa/

Overall statistics of the run is shown in the Table below.

TABLE Overall statistics of a 454 sequence run for SNP discovery inpepper. Enzyme combination Run Trimming All reads 254308 Fault  5293(2%)  Correct 249015 (98%)  Concatamers  2156 (8.5%) Mixed tags  1120(0.4%) Correct reads Trimmed one end 240817 (97%)  Trimmed both ends 8198 (3%)  Number of reads sample 1 136990 (55%)  Number of readssample 2 112025 (45%)  Clustering Number of contigs 21918 Reads incontigs 190861 Average number reads per contig 8.7 SNP mining SNPs withQ score ≧ 0.3 * 1483 Indel with Q score ≧ 0.3 * 3300 SSR mining Totalnumber of SSR motifs identified 359 Number of reads containing one ormore SSR motifs 353 Number of SSR motif with unit size 1 (homopolymer) 0Number of SSR motif with unit size 2 102 Number of SSR motif with unitsize 3 240 Number of SSR motif with unit size 4 17 * SNP/indel miningcriteria were as follows: No neighbouring polymorphisms with Q scorelarger than 0.1 within 12 bases on either side, not present inhomopolymers of 3 or more bases. Mining criteria did not take intoaccount consistent association with sample 1 and 2, i.e. the SNPs andindels are not necessarily elite putative SNPs/indels

An example of a multiple alignment containing an elite putative singlenucleotide polymorphism is shown in FIG. 5.

Example 2 Maize

DNA from the Maize lines B73 and M017 was used to generate AFLP productby use of AFLP Keygene Recognition Site specific primers. (These AFLPprimers are essentially the same as conventional AFLP primers, e.g.described in EP 0 534 858, and will generally contain a recognition siteregion, a constant region and one or more selective nucleotides at the3′-end thereof).

DNA from the pepper lines B73 or M017 was digested with the restrictionendonucleases TaqI (5 U/reaction) for 1 hour at 65° C. and MseI (2U/reaction) for 1 hour at 37° C. following by inactivation for 10minutes at 80° C. The obtained restriction fragments were ligated withdouble-stranded synthetic oligonucleotide adapter, one end of which iscompatible with one or both of the ends of the TaqI and/or MseIrestriction fragments.

AFLP preamplification reactions (20 μl/reaction) with +1/+1 AFLP primerswere performed on 10 times diluted restriction-ligation mixture. PCRprofile: 20*(30 s at 94° C.+60 s at 56° C.+120 s at 72° C.). AdditionalAFLP reactions (50 μl/reaction) with different +2 TaqI and MseI AFLPKeygene Recognition Site primers (Table below, tags are in bold,selective nucleotides are underlined.) were performed on 20 timesdiluted +1/+1 TaqI/MseI AFLP preamplification product. PCR profile:30*(30 s at 94° C.+60 s at 56° C.+120 s at 72° C.). The AFLP product waspurified by using the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (QIAGEN) followingthe QIAquick® Spin Handbook 07/2002 page 18 and the concentration wasmeasured with a NanoDrop® ND-1000 Spectrophotometer. A total of 1.25 μgof each different B73 +2/+2 AFLP product and 1.25 μg of each differentM017 +2/+2 AFLP product was put together and solved in 30 μl TE. Finallya mixture with a concentration of 333 ng/μl +2/+2 AFLP product wasobtained.

TABLE PCR AFLP SEQ ID Primer Primer sequence Maize Reaction [SEQ ID 17]05G360 ACGTGTAGACTGCGTACCG B73 1 AAA [SEQ ID 18] 05G368ACGTGATGAGTCCTGAGTA B73 1 ACA [SEQ ID 19] 05G362 CGTAGTAGACTGCGTACCG B732 AAC [SEQ ID 20] 05G370 CGTAGATGAGTCCTGAGTA B73 2 ACA [SEQ ID 21]05G364 GTACGTAGACTGCGTACCG B73 3 AAG [SEQ ID 22] 05G372GTACGATGAGTCCTGAGTA B73 3 ACA [SEQ ID 23] 05G366 TACGGTAGACTGCGTACCG B734 AAT [SEQ ID 24] 05G374 TACGGATGAGTCCTGAGTA B73 4 ACA [SEQ ID 25]05G361 AGTCGTAGACTGCGTACCG M017 5 AAA [SEQ ID 26] 05G369AGTCGATGAGTCCTGAGTA M017 5 ACA [SEQ ID 27] 05G363 CATGGTAGACTGCGTACCGM017 6 AAC [SEQ ID 28] 05G371 CATGGATGAGTCCTGAGTA M017 6 ACA [SEQ ID 29]05G365 GAGCGTAGACTGCGTACCG M017 7 AAG [SEQ ID 30] 05G373GAGCGATGAGTCCTGAGTA M017 7 ACA [SEQ ID 31] 05G367 TGATGTAGACTGCGTACCGM017 8 AAT [SEQ ID 32] 05G375 TGATGATGAGTCCTGAGTA M017 8 ACA

Finally the 4 P1-samples and the 4 P2-samples were pooled andconcentrated. A total amount of 25 μl of DNA product and a finalconcentration of 400 ng/μl (total of 10 μg) was obtained. Intermediatequality assessments are given in FIG. 3.

Sequencing by 454

Pepper and maize AFLP fragment samples as prepared as describedhereinbefore were processed by 454 Life Sciences as described (Margulieset al., 2005. Genome sequencing in microfabricated high-densitypicolitre reactors. Nature 437 (7057):376-80. Epub Jul. 31, 2005).

Data Processing Processing Pipeline: Input Data

raw sequence data were received for each run:

-   -   200,000-400,000 reads    -   base calling quality scores

Trimming and Tagging

These sequence data are analyzed for the presence of Keygene RecognitionSites (KRS) at the beginning and end of the read. These KRS sequencesconsist of both AFLP-adaptor and sample label sequence and are specificfor a certain AFLP primer combination on a certain sample. The KRSsequences are identified by BLAST and trimmed and the restriction sitesare restored. Reads are marked with a tag for identification of the KRSorigin. Trimmed sequences are selected on length (minimum of 33 nt) toparticipate in further processing.

Clustering and Assembly

A MegaBlast analysis is performed on all size-selected, trimmed reads toobtain clusters of homologous sequences. Consecutively all clusters areassembled with CAPS to result in assembled contigs. From both stepsunique sequence reads are identified that do not match any other reads.These reads are marked as singletons.

The processing pipeline carrying out the steps described herein beforeis shown in FIG. 4A

Polymorphism Mining and Quality Assessment

The resulting contigs from the assembly analysis form the basis ofpolymorphism detection. Each ‘mismatch’ in the alignment of each clusteris a potential polymorphism. Selection criteria are defined to obtain aquality score:

-   -   number of reads per contig    -   frequency of ‘alleles’ per sample    -   occurrence of homopolymer sequence    -   occurrence of neighbouring polymorphisms

SNPs and indels with a quality score above the threshold are identifiedas putative polymorphisms. For SSR mining we use the MISA(MIcroSAtellite identification) tool(http://pgrc.ipk-gatersleben.de/misa). This tool identifies di-, tri-,tetranucleotide and compound SSR motifs with predefined criteria andsummarizes occurrences of these SSRs. The polymorphism mining andquality assignment process is shown in FIG. 4B

Results

The table below summarizes the results of the combined analysis ofsequences obtained from 2 454 sequence runs for the combined peppersamples and 2 runs for the combined maize samples.

Pepper Maize Total number of reads 457178 492145 Number of trimmed reads399623 411008 Number singletons 105253 313280 Number of contigs 3186314588 Number of reads in contigs 294370 97728 Total number of sequencescontaining SSRs 611 202 Number of different SSR-containing sequences 10465 Number of different SSR motifs (di, tri, tetra 49 40 and compound)Number SNPs with Q score ≧ 0.3 * 1636 782 Number of indels * 4090 943 *both with selection against neighboring SNPs, at least 12 by flankingsequence and not occurring in homopolymer sequences larger than 3nucleotides.

Example 3 SNP Validation by PCR Amplification and Sanger Sequencing

In order to validate the putative A/G SNP identified in example 1, asequence tagged site (STS) assay for this SNP was designed usingflanking PCR primers. PCR primer sequences were as follows:

Primer_1.2f: [SEQ ID 33] 5′-AAACCCAAACTCCCCCAATC-3′,  and Primer 1.2r:[SEQ ID 34] 5′-AGCGGATAACAATTTCACACAGGA CATCAGTAGTCACACTGGTACAAAAATAGAGCAAAACAGTAGTG-3′

Note that primer 1.2r contained an M13 sequence primer binding site andlength stuffer at its 5 prime end. PCR amplification was carried outusing +A/+CA AFLP amplification products of PSP11 and PI210234 preparedas described in example 4 as template. PCR conditions were as follows:

For 1 PCR reaction the following components were mixed:

5 μl 1/10 diluted AFLP mixture (app. 10 ng/μl) 5 μl 1 pmol/μl primer1.2f (diluted directly from a 500 μM stock) 5 μl 1 pmol/μl primer 1.2r(diluted directly from a 500 μM stock) 5 μl PCR mix 2 μl 10 × PCR buffer1 μl 5 mM dNTPs 1.5 μl 25 mM MgCl₂ 0.5 μl H₂O 5 μl Enzyme mix 0.5 μl 10× PCR buffer (Applied Biosystems) 0.1 μl 5U/μl AmpliTaq DNA polymerase(Applied Biosystems) 4.4 μl H₂OThe following PCR profile was used:

Cycle 1 2′; 94° C. Cycle 2-34 20″; 94° C. 30″; 56° C. 2′30″; 72° C.Cycle 35 7′; 72° C. ∞;  4° C.

PCR products were cloned into vector pCR2.1 (TA Cloning kit; Invitrogen)using the TA Cloning method and transformed into INVαF′ competent E.coli cells. Transformants were subjected to blue/white screening. Threeindependent white transformants each for PSP11 and PI-201234 wereselected and grown O/N in liquid selective medium for plasmid isolation.

Plasmids were isolated using the QIAprep Spin Miniprep kit (QIAGEN).Subsequently, the inserts of these plasmids were sequenced according tothe protocol below and resolved on the MegaBACE 1000 (Amersham).Obtained sequences were inspected on the presence of the SNP allele. Twoindependent plasmids containing the PI-201234 insert and 1 plasmidcontaining the PSP 11 insert contained the expected consensus sequenceflanking the SNP. Sequence derived from the PSP11 fragment contained theexpected A (underlined) allele and sequence derived from PI-201234fragment contained the expected G allele (double underlined):

PSP11 (sequence 1): (5′-3′) [SEQ ID 35]AAACCCAAACTCCCCCAATCGATTTCAAACCTAGAACAATGTTGGTTTTGGTGCTAACTTCAACCCCACTACTGTTTTGCTCTATTTTTGT P1-201234 (sequence 1): (5′-3′) [SEQ ID 36]AAACCCAAACTCCCCCAATCGATTTCAAACCTAGAACAGTGTTGGTTTTGGTGCTAACTTCAACCCCACTACTGTTTTGCTCTATTTTTG P1-201234 (sequence 2): (5′-3′) [SEQ ID 37]AAACCCAAACTCCCCCAATCGATTTCAAACCTAGAACA G TGTTGGTTTTGGTGCTAACTTCAACCCCACTACTGTTTTGCTCTATTTTTG 

This result indicates that the putative pepper A/G SNP represents a truegenetic polymorphism detectable using the designed STS assay.

REFERENCES

-   1. Zabeau, M. and Vos, P. (1993) Selective restriction fragment    amplification; a general method for DNA fingerprinting. EP    0534858-A1, B1, B2; U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,994.-   2. Vos, P., Hogers, R., Bleeker, M., Reijans, M., van de Lee, T.,    Hornes, M., Frijters, A., Pot, J., Peleman, J., Kuiper, M. et    al. (1995) AFLP: a new technique for DNA fingerprinting. Nucl. Acids    Res., 21, 4407-4414.-   3. M. van der Meulen, J. Buntjer, M. J. T. van Eijk, P. Vos, and R.    van Schaik. (2002). Highly automated AFLP fingerprint analysis on    the MegaBACE capillary sequencer. Plant, Animal and Microbial Genome    X, San Diego, Calif., January 12-16, P228, pp. 135.-   4. Margulies et al., 2005. Genome sequencing in microfabricated    high-density picolitre reactions. Nature advanced online publication    03959, August 1.-   5. R. W. Michelmore, I. Paran, and R. V. Kesseli. (1991).    Identification of markers linked to disease-resistance genes by    bulked segregant analysis: a rapid method to detect markers in    specific genomic regions by using segregating populations. Proc.    Natl. Acad. Sci USA 88(21):9828-32.-   6. Shendure et al., 2005. Accurate multiplex polony sequencing of an    evolved bacterial genome. Scienceexpress Report, August 4.

1. A method for genotyping genetic markers in a sample, comprising thesteps of: (a) reducing complexity of at least two nucleic acid samplesusing amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) to produce at leasttwo reproducible subsets of amplified adaptor-ligated restrictionfragments from the at least two nucleic acid samples, wherein eachreproducible subset comprises a unique identifier tag; (b) sequencing apool of the at least two reproducible subsets of amplifiedadaptor-ligated restriction fragments using sequencing by synthesis on asolid support; (c) aligning the sequences of the reproducible subsets ofamplified adaptor-ligated restriction fragments; (d) identifying AFLPand/or single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers within a selectionof amplified adaptor-ligated restriction fragments that are sequencedwith a redundancy of at least 6; and (e) determining dominant orco-dominant genotypes of the genetic markers in the selected amplifiedadaptor-ligated restriction fragments that are sequenced with theredundancy of at least
 6. 2. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising digesting the nucleic acid with two or more restrictionenzymes.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein two adaptors areligated to the restriction fragments.
 4. The method according to claim2, wherein two adaptors are ligated to the restriction fragments.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the redundancy is at least 7, 8 or9.
 6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the redundancy is atleast 7, 8 or
 9. 7. The method according to claim 3, wherein theredundancy is at least 7, 8 or
 9. 8. The method according to claim 4,wherein the redundancy is at least 7, 8 or 9.